Ends and Beginnings
by athenethegoddess
Summary: A portal opens in the middle of the final battle, and a mysterious witch stumbles through, causing an uproar, and bringing about some interesting changes.


Title: Ends, and Beginnings

Author: Athenethegoddess

Harry Potter/OFC

_Naturally, we all know that I don't own anything. If I did, my name would be J.K. Rowling, and I'd be making a lot more money than I do right now._

Summary: A portal opens in the middle of the final battle, and a mysterious witch stumbles through, causing an uproar, and bringing about some interesting changes.

* * *

I don't really know what happened, when "It" happened. One minute I was walking in the middle of the forest, and the next, a large blue – something opened right in front of me. Something made me stumble. I'm not sure if it was surprise, shock, or if it was fate. But I tripped overs something, possibly my own feet. Mother always said I was clumsy, for an Elf. Even a halfling. 

Tumbling headfirst, I fell into the swirling blue nothingness. When I landed, I was gratified to land on something soft. Well, softer than the ground, that is. When I got my breath back, and noticed that the 'softness' that I'd landed on was a young man, around my own age, I suppose, I got up as fast as I could. It was, after all, impolite to just lay there and gape at my mattress. Mother'd brought me up better than that. If you land on someone, you must get up quickly, and then thank them for letting you land on them. If they were still alive, that is. And if they don't try to kill you.

The young man, however, had obviously not had Mother to teach him how to react to being landed on. He just lay there and gaped at me. Apparently, he wasn't used to people flying out of thin air and landing on him. Not that it had happened to me all that often. I leaned over, and grabbed his hand, and yanked him to his feet.

"Thank you for letting me land on you." Never let it be known that Mother had not raised her only daughter to be impolite.

"Your-you're welcome." he stuttered.

I glanced around for the first time, and that's when I noticed that there appeared to be a battle raging around us. Well, maybe not 'raging,' but there was definitely a battle of some sorts going on. Lots of men running around, and quite a few women, as well, all of them with little wooden sticks in hand. Many of them had robes on, and one side of them seemed to be wearing some type of mask along with the robes.

I noticed that one side seemed to be made of younger men and women. They looked like – students of some sort.

I glanced back at my mattress, and he seemed to be wearing the same robes as the younger fighters.

"So," I asked him, "which side is winning, and is that the good side?"

"Um, well, that is.." he stuttered. He seemed to do that a lot.

"Ok, let's break this down a bit more then. Which. Side. Are. You. On. Savvy?" I enunciated slowly.

"That one." he waved at the younger men and women, whom I'd dubbed 'Studies.'

"Ah, progress. Alright. Question 2. Are they the good guys?" I prodded.

"Ah, yes. In as much as we're not trying to kill everyone, just trying to stop them," he gestured towards the masked melee, "and stay alive."

"Ah, goody. Alright, what can I do to help." I asked, checking my bow, which had miraculously remained unharmed. I hadn't even lost any of my arrows.

"Uh..you mean, like, attack them? With a bow? Uh..." I seemed to have confused him again. I rolled my eyes.

"No, I thought I'd just walk up to them and politely ask them to stop trying to kill us. YES, with my bow. Ok, who's in charge here, anyhow?" I figured someone had to be in charge, right? Obviously, it wasn't Stutters here.

"Professor Snape, and umm...Professor Dumbledore. I suppose." he looked even more confused, if possible.

"And they are...where? Come on, boy, I haven't gotten all day, if we want to survive this here fight. Let's shake a leg!"

"Shake a - ? Nevermind, I'm sure I don't want to know. Follow me, please." We started towards the Studies, and made our way through them, to some of the older gents of this side of the war.

"Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, I, um, well. She came out of no where, fell on me, and then wanted to know how she can help." he summed up.

The younger of the two, a dark haired man, with a rather prominent nose, looked rather suspicious of me. Not that I blamed him. If I was in the middle of a war, and someone just appeared out of no where and landed on me, the offered their help, I'd be rather suspicious as well.

The older man, though, he seemed to be unsurprised to see me. Like I said, maybe it was fate. Maybe it wasn't. At the moment, I didn't know. And I probably never would. His light blue eyes seemed to twinkle, but maybe that was just my imagination. Mother'd always said I had a good imagination. Wonder what she'd say about this pickle I'd gotten myself into.

"Yep. Landed on Stutters here. Don't know how I got here, don't even know where 'here' is, but hey, what can I say. I figure, at the moment, I have a choice of two sides. You guys seem to be an alright bunch, from what I've seen. But then, I haven't seen much other than you two and Stutters here. But I have a feeling that I've made the better of two choices. So, what, exactly, can I do to help?" I asked, bouncing on the balls of my feet. I fingered my bow again, and tried to look less than eager.

Tall, dark, and gloomy smirked at my name for the young man beside me, guess they didn't get along all that well. _Not my problem how they get along, now is it_?

"Well, young lady. Do you have a name?" Twinkly said. _Whoops! Good goin, Kat._

"Yep! Mother named me and all. Name's Katarinah Leigh, call me Kat. Everyone does. Except for Mother, that is. She uses my full name. Usually when I'm in trouble, though. After that, I don't usually understand much of what she says, being that she slips into Elven at that point..."

I nodded, as if that was an everyday occurrence.

Stutters and Gloomy looked kinda shell shocked. Guess they weren't used to so much babble at one point. Mother always told me that I talked too much, and that one day my tongue would get too tired, and just fall out of my mouth. I was still waiting for that to happen, though.

Twinkly just smiled, and said, "Well, you seem to be familiar with a bow, why don't you try to wound them. We would rather have them brought to justice, rather than kill them. However, do not put their safety before yours or any of the students."

_Ah, so they ARE students. Thought so._

"Can do! Hmm." I did a quick count of my arrows. "You don't by any chance have any more arrows, do you?"

Twinkly smiled, and nodded. He waved his hand at the ground, and a bundle of arrows appeared.

"Oooh. Nice trick. Thanks!" grabbing the bundle, I raced off to join the battle. Pulling my bow off of my shoulder, I muttered a quick warming spell onto my hands, and used them to warm up the wood. It was a very powerful bow, and difficult to string if the wood hadn't been properly warmed. I didn't have the time, hence the spell. Dismissing the heat from my hands, I drew on my bowman's gloves, and bracer.

That was one of the first things Mother taught me when she started to teach me how to use the bow. No matter how good you got, the string will still slap you on the arm. So, you _always_ wore a bracer. And if you're not careful, you can cut your fingers to the bone with a bow string, so you _always_ wore your gloves.

I picked a spot near the center of the battle, but away from the front lines. Taking a proper stance, I set up a line of arrows in front of me. Notching my bow, I chose my first target. Taking a deep breath, I _pushed_ the bow away from me. So many people think that you're supposed to pull the string away from the bow, but you're not, really. Using my mouth as a guide, I took aim, and released. The arrow hit the man in the right shoulder, right where I'd aimed. He seemed surprised at the physical attack, but stopped fighting to clutch at his shoulder. My next arrow caught him in the left leg, dropping him to the ground.

I continued aiming an firing, until my hand could no longer find arrows to fire. By now, my attack had gained quite a bit of notice, and not all of it was appreciative. I saw a man pointing one of those stick things at me, and considering what I'd seen those things do earlier, I mutters a quick shielding spell, followed by a very loud "Fuck!" seconds later. Dropping to the ground, I prayed that my shield would hold.

I heard a loud shot of _"Avada Kedavra"_ and the sound of something large rushing towards me. I saw green light bounce off my shield, and heard a scream of triumph, followed by a gasp from the students around me. The scream was followed by a shout of rage when the light deflected harmlessly off my shield.

I was guessing that _Avda Kadavra_ was supposed to be a powerful spell. Made me rather grateful for Aunt Tia's teaching.

Standing up, I brushed the dirt off my clothing, and glared at the jerk who'd tried to kill me. Putting my hands on my hips, and tapping my foot, I quickly went through my spells mentally. Coming on one that was, I felt, fitting, I nodded. Glaring fiercely, I shouted, _"Cuniculus!"_

No flash of light, not even a pop, but where there had been a man standing was now a floppy eared bunny.

"Try and kill me, why don't you. Bah, men." Hearing this, several of the young men around me shuffled back a step or two. Which made me laugh.

"Not you, sweet cheeks. Only the one's who're trying to kill me. Tends to put one in a bad mood, am I right, or am I right."

Several young ladies standing near me nodded, and we smirked at each other for a minute. Then they turned back to the battle, giggling every time they saw the bunny.

I picked up my quiver from where I'd dropped it when I was attacked, and checked to see if I had any arrows left. Two. I had two arrows left. _Better get Twinkly to do another one of those tricks, and get me some more._

The young man I'd dubbed Stutters earlier came up beside me. "Nice shooting. Where'd you learn to use that thing?" he asked, standing awkwardly next to me.

I smiled. "Mother taught me."

"Oh. And, um, the bunny? How'd you learn _that?_"

I laughed. "Aunt Tia taught me that one special. Told me it came in handy sometimes. I guess she was right."

"I'm Harry, by the way. I forgot to introduce myself earlier, I was a bit surprised still."

"I'm guessing that you don't have people landing on you from strange portals every day, hmm?" I teased.

"Well." he flushed. "Not _every_ day."

I plucked one of my last arrows out of the quiver, and notched it on the string, something telling me that I should be watching what was going on, not flirting. Harry caught my sudden tension, and looked up.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't–" was all I got out.

Suddenly, a girl with messy brown hair screamed, "Harry! Watch out!"

Harry and I both turned at the same time. Grabbing his wand, he pointed at the dark figure rising out of the darkness.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he shouted, at the same time that I drew my bow, and shouted "Ignis!" and fired. The bolt glowed blue for a moment, and as it hit it's target, exploded in a shower of frozen fire.

The figure slowly toppled over, and lay still. A hush spread throughout the fighting. Harry stared at me, and I stared at the figure on the ground. As the seconds ticked by, the fighting slowly drew to a halt, as everyone watched the figure on the ground. Expecting it to get up again.

When it didn't, people slowly ventured forward, and looked down at it.

"He's – he's dead. You killed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You killed Voldemort."

Gasps of shock swept through both sides of the armies.

Harry stared at me.

"Well. Hell of a way to start out the day."


End file.
